If you know the name Julia Allison, chances are good it's because you're a reader of the gossip blogs where she was a regular fixture two or three years ago. Editors of those blogs knew that even the briefest mention of whom Allison was dating (usually someone famous) or what she was wearing (usually something pink) could set off a page-view-boosting feeding frenzy among commenters.

If that is where you know her from, you might be surprised by the 29-year-old's latest gig: Starting March 1, she'll be writing a weekly column on social media and digital communications for Tribune Media Services, the newspaper-and-TV chain's syndication arm.
Called "Social Studies," it will cover topics from Twitter etiquette to cyberbullying to Facebook envy syndrome.

It turns out that Allison has for some time now been making good on her hard-won microfame (and her 22,000 Twitter followers) by establishing herself as a credible commentator on technology and internet culture, the kind who gets invited to speak about "personal branding," her area of unchallenged expertise, at conferences, corporate events and the occasional university. "The ironic thing is that, as you'll see from my first column, this is the most logical job in the world for me," she says. "I've written columns for years, and I've been obsessed with technology and social media the entire time. So to combine them -- it's pretty much my dream job." (Microsoft and Sony would buy that: They've put her in ad campaigns for Bing and the Vaio, respectively.)

It's a far cry from swanning down red carpets every night, but those days are over, swears Allison. "I haven't left sweatpants in three weeks getting this column launched," she says.

Well, at least she hadn't until this past weekend, when she headed down to Pensacola to see her boyfriend, Jack McCain, get his pilot's wings. That's McCain as in the 2008 presidential candidate, Jack's father. Some things don't change.